China Fuck Off

https://www.barrons.com/articles/nba...re-51570551913

"And it’s not just the NBA that finds itself in a minefield sparked by Chinese censorship. A professional gamer competing in Activision Blizzard’s Hearthstone online trading card game was banned from competition for a year and had his prize money stripped after he wore a gas mask and said “liberate Hong Kong” in a post-match interview.

The player, Chung Ng Wai, who competes with the tag “Blitzchung” violated Blizzard’s rules regarding acts that “brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages Blizzard image,” the company said.

Blizzard’s Overwatch League includes four teams based in China, and the company is 4.9% owned by Tencent. As to whether the league would react similarly if an Overwatch player made similar comments on their personal social media channels, a Blizzard representative did not return a request for comment.

And if this all sounds like an episode of South Park, you’re right. Viacom’s (VIAB) controversial cartoon released an episode on Wednesday—two days before the NBA outrage began—called “Band in China” which lambasted U.S. companies for allowing Chinese censors to dictate content. After the episode aired, previously available mentions of the show on Chinese internet sites disappeared, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter."

Brands being more and more cowardly when it comes to China but have no problem trying to be 'woke' when it comes to American politics. If you want to boycott Israel but aren't boycotting China you are a hypocrite. If you are down with your employees and players speaking about social issues but come down on them hard for speaking about China you are a hypocrite.

Brands in caring more about money than principles shock.

Lmao how's your boycott of China going ya poser? :haha: :up: maybe if you flex your biceps a little and growl menacingly they'll pay attention.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

Brands being more and more cowardly when it comes to China but have no problem trying to be 'woke' when it comes to American politics. If you want to boycott Israel but aren't boycotting China you are a hypocrite. If you are down with your employees and players speaking about social issues but come down on them hard for speaking about China you are a hypocrite.

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Of course they weren't and aren't free to be "woke" when it comes to American politics because you and yours scream and rant about it just the same when they do. You were perfectly happy to take a "shut up, you're not in politics" approach when athletes did things like decline an invitation to the White House, or chose to kneel during the national anthem.

Being reminded of one's weakness is painful, and it's the liberals' fault. Lewk is upset that China has made American companies and consumers their obedient servants, because it makes him feel weak. It's not a principled criticism. He isn't calling for a boycott over their brutal abuse of over a million Uighur, for example. And, because he's too weak to do anything about China, he lashes out at his usual boogeymen—members of the liberal conspiracy.

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Originally Posted by LittleFuzzy

Of course they weren't and aren't free to be "woke" when it comes to American politics because you and yours scream and rant about it just the same when they do.

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Nike's value increased by $6 billion after the Kaepernick thing. I'm pretty sure a massive backlash by idiots is part of the intended, or at least hoped for, response when brands make these extremely mild progressive gestures. It's basically free advertising for them, worth far more than whatever they spent on the actual campaign.

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Originally Posted by LittleFuzzy

Of course they weren't and aren't free to be "woke" when it comes to American politics because you and yours scream and rant about it just the same when they do. You were perfectly happy to take a "shut up, you're not in politics" approach when athletes did things like decline an invitation to the White House, or chose to kneel during the national anthem.

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Fuzzy I think you have me confused with a cutout cardboard conservative. I think brands who engage in woke politics are sad but that's a little different from *banning* a player for making one statement about HK. They even fired the two casters who didn't even know the player was going to do anything.

Don't recall you being outraged at Kaepernick being blacklisted.

Or when marvel cut out work by an award winning author for an "orange skull" reference.

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Originally Posted by Loki

Don't recall you being outraged at Kaepernick being blacklisted.

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I don't recall him being blacklisted. He was a sub-par QB who brought needless drama to a team. What team wants to invite that level of drama for a 2nd stringer?

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Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer

Or when marvel cut out work by an award winning author for an "orange skull" reference.

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Never even heard of it. I know this may surprise y'all but I'm not all knowing.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

I don't recall him being blacklisted. He was a sub-par QB who brought needless drama to a team. What team wants to invite that level of drama for a 2nd stringer?

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Case in point.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

Never even heard of it. I know this may surprise y'all but I'm not all knowing.

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Heres a bunch of other china shit you missed expressing your fake outrage on:

• Activision Blizzard: Censored multiple card designs in Hearthstone to better align China's expectations
• Apple: censors Taiwan flag emoji in iOS in Hong Kong & Macau
• Apple (partial entry): censored Hong Kong protest map from App Store. Relented after it turned into a PR mess, now letting the app into App Store.
• Vans: censors pro-HK democracy design in its shoe design competition
• NBA (partial entry): rebuked Rockets manager for his "Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong" tweet, saying NBA was "extremely disappointed with Morey's inappropriate comment." Backpedalled after this turned into a PR nightmare, now saying they support Morey's freedom of speech.
• Disney / ESPN: forbids any mention of Chinese politics when discussing Rockets manager's tweet supporting HK freedom. ESPN talking heads castigated Morey for sending the tweet & speculated about his sincerity, but they absolutely will not talk what caused the tweet: China's encroachment on HK and the resultant HK protest
• Viacom / Paramount: censors Taiwan flag from the jacket worn by Tom Cruise in the new "Top Gun" movie
• Disney / Marvel: censored Tibetan monk from "Doctor Strange" and turned him into a white woman. Per the movie's screenwriter: "if you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he’s Tibetan, you risk alienating one billion people who think that that’s bullshit". Now you can't even acknowledge that Tibet is a place lest our Chinese overlord be displeased.
• ASICS, Calvin Klein, Coach, Fresh, Givenchy, Pocari Sweat, Valentino, Versace, Swarovski: details here
• Marriott: apologized to China & changed "Taiwan" to "Taiwan, China" in its hotel listings after China threw a hissy fit
• Nike: removed all Houston Rockets related products from their China webstore after Rockets manager tweeted "Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong"
• Activision Blizzard: cut livestream when American University team held up "Free Hong Kong, boycott Blizzard" in solidarity with the banned HK player.
• Apple: handed over iCloud data and encryption keys to China
• Riot Games: censors the words "Hong Kong", forcing their casters to refer to the team "Hong Kong Attitude" as "HKA". Also canceled live interview with team "Hong Kong Attitude" and replaced it with prerecorded session to make sure they didn't say anything to support HK democracy.
• Cathay Pacific: fired large number of employees for supporting HK democracy protests. Its flight attendants union head was fired for posting on Facebook in support of the protests
• Apple: minimized the seriousness of iOS exploits that enabled China to track Uyghurs, when over a million of them are already rounded up by China in concentration camps
• Google: censored pro-HK democracy game "The Revolution of Our Times" from Google Play because it was about a "sensitive event".
• Gap: apologized to China for selling T-shirts IN CANADA that didn't include Taiwan & South China Sea islands as part of China
• Tiffany: removed tweet showing a model covering one eye after Chinese consumers accused it of supporting Hong Kong protesters & "defaming" China
• Marriott: fired employee who liked tweet from an Tibetan group
• Mercedes: apologized for "hurting the feelings" of the people of China for quoting Dalai Lama on Instagram
• American Airlines, Delta, United: deleted any mention of Taiwan as a country from their websites after China gave them the order
• Audi: apologized for using an "incorrect geographical map" of China that left off Taiwan
• Muji: destroyed store catalogs that contain an "incorrect" map of China
• Zara: apologized for listing Taiwan as a country on its website
• Medtronic: apologized for publishing "illegal content" that listed "Republic of China (Taiwan)" as a country on its website
• Ray-Ban: changed its website description of "Taiwan" & "Hongkong" to "China Taiwan" & "China Hongkong"
• Qantas, Air France, Air Canada, British Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Japan Airlines, ANA: changed "Taiwan" to "Taiwan China" on their websites afetr China gave them the order
• TikTok: censored videos that mention Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, or the banned religious group Falun Gong
• Sheraton: banned Taiwan National Day event after China embassy gave it the order. China called the Taiwan National Day celebration "illegal and a crime against international law"
• Disney: shrank or removed non-white characters from Chinese poster of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
• Philadelphia Sixers: ejected fans from game for supporting Hong Kong democracy

So in summary. Fuck China.

lol

Twitter Link

Should someone tell China about the Streisand effect or...?

It's not going to work. The west is not capable of boycotting China. The country is, to a very great extent, impervious to opprobrium. These companies are more vulnerable to retaliation from Chinese govt. & Chinese consumers than to the short-lived ire of western govts and consumers. They've imprisoned a million Uighur, subjecting thousands to torture, rape and worse, with nary a peep from the west, and little regard for what little sanctions they've been hit with. I don't think these events are going to have any lasting impact at all. People like Lewk are upset not because of violations but because China has made them feel weak; as soon as they can find a way to paper over the memory of that cultural humiliation, they'll revert to blaming liberals for all their woes.

If that's true then why do they care about some dipshit on Twitch yelling "FREE HONG KONG?"

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Originally Posted by Steely Glint

If that's true then why do they care about some dipshit on Twitch yelling "FREE HONG KONG?"

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One possibility is that these things can lead to greater inconvenience. A thousand kids shouting "free Hong Kong!" on Twitch isn't going to free Hong Kong, but it may result in a slightly more protracted and more energetic protest movement, to great inconvenience and embarrassment for the Chinese govt. and its representatives. Another possibility is that American companies care too much about possibly jeopardizing their access to the Chinese market, and, because they don't have any insight into what Chinese officials are thinking, err on the side of caution and cowardice. A third related possibility is that Chinese officials know that Western countries are overly cautious in these matters, and so exploit that to their advantage, because it is largely effortless. Increasing the effort required to make western companies bend over may make it less likely for them to do so, but it's extremely difficult to accomplish that so long as so many companies are so extremely attached to the Chinese market. Finally, maybe they're just extremely thin-skinned. Being thin-skinned doesn't mean that they are objectively weak wrt economical clout, military clout in their specific arenas etc.

And on top of all this, consider how an authoritarian regime might react to the idea of foreigners trying to influence what they believe to be their domestic politics.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

I don't recall him being blacklisted. He was a sub-par QB who brought needless drama to a team. What team wants to invite that level of drama for a 2nd stringer?

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Well this hearthstone player was underperforming and he clearly brought needless drama to the franchise so obviously you shouldn't care about this either. Assuming, of course, they either your initial objection or your dismissal of the counter are anything more than your post hoc rationalizations for your political biases which they clearly are.

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Originally Posted by LittleFuzzy

Well this hearthstone player was underperforming and he clearly brought needless drama to the franchise so obviously you shouldn't care about this either. Assuming, of course, they either your initial objection or your dismissal of the counter are anything more than your post hoc rationalizations for your political biases which they clearly are.

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He had just won the tournament, how was he under-performing? And how about the two casters who literally hid from the camera to avoid the backlash STILL getting fired based on Blizzard's Chinese overlords demands? You are comparing two wildly different things. My guess is you actually know jack and shit about football and Hearthstone otherwise you would see how completely off base the comparison is.

I can't stop laughing at this parody

I'm honestly struggling to figure out how Lewk is rationalizing this.

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

He had just won the tournament, how was he under-performing? And how about the two casters who literally hid from the camera to avoid the backlash STILL getting fired based on Blizzard's Chinese overlords demands? You are comparing two wildly different things. My guess is you actually know jack and shit about football and Hearthstone otherwise you would see how completely off base the comparison is.

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So says Lewk the football expert.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...-not-too-late/

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Originally Posted by Lewkowski

So in summary. Fuck China.

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No, fuck these companies that have replaced ideology with a fucked up interpretation of capitalism. China is not unique in requesting bullshit concessions.

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Originally Posted by Loki

So says Lewk the football expert.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...-not-too-late/

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Back when Alex was injured, I actually mentioned the possibility to my mother. We agreed that it would be a heartless thing to do to bring Colin in to replace poor Alex on two different teams.
His stats, even in his worst year, were better than those of a number of other 1st string QBs, much less the 2nd stringers. Not as good as they should have been but good enough.

As for this guy, yes, he won a tournament. So? Look at some of the problems with how the system works. Last year's world champion got dumped completely out of the bracket by this tournament but despite being relegated can (and quite probably will) still take WC this year. The basic RNG in the system means winning like this doesn't tell us much about their skill. Consistency in performance shows that better though it's not rewarded as well And (until this brouhaha stripped it from him) this tournament was only the second time your guy has had an overall winning record since LAST October. I don't follow the Hearthstone scene much (I prefer Overwatch) but I don't think you do either (and you certainly don't begin to understand it even if you do try and follow it). You certainly don't follow the football scene all that well.

Freeeedom! :popcorn:

https://babylonbee.com/news/oppresse...difficult-week